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Type: Large Private VC

Posted by
jkaplan
on 2012-11-27

PUBLIC:

A friend with no VC experience asked me to attend her initial pitch to SHV.

We first met with Mike Speiser for over an hour, then he introduced us to Sam Pullara, who basically met with us separately for another hour. Both of them were thoughtful, respectful, wicked smart, engaged, supportive, and extremely helpful.

They each approached the discussion from the standpoint of how the entrepreneur could maximize her value, and offered their ideas and help without any evident consideration of whether this might be an opportunity for SHV. They were both very knowledgeable and insightful about the current environment, not to mention they were technical enough to understand what she was doing, and made excellent suggestions. I personally learned a lot from the meeting.

I've made probably >100 VC pitches in my time, including a few to SHV in the past. While they have never bit on funding, I've always come away with a good impression of the partners. Mike and Sam are 'new blood' there, but I have to say these guys really stand out, and are going to be great VCs. I suspect that their constructive attitude is at least in part a ‘cultural’ matter at SHV. I’d work with either of them in a heartbeat.

Posted by
Former Portfolio C level Executive
on 2012-07-20

PUBLIC:

My Favorite Silicon Valley VC. Smart, to the point. does not waste your time. Very straight shooters, no BS. Dont BS them, they will read right thru it and react accordingly. Deal terms were reasonable, assistance and introductions productive. Overall highly efficient, no pompus positioning or fancy offices or chefs.

Posted by
serialsoft
on 2008-01-28

PUBLIC:

My last company raised capital from SHV and these guys are wonderful. Good group of guys, very knowledge and passionate. Understand the entrepreneur and how to build companies. Less concerned about the mechanics and more concerned about results. In the end, we got into a pickle because of another early investor and SHV really helped us manage our way through it and they even put up some additional dollars to help employees even though they knew they would not get their money back. Very exceptional to work with.

I'm not sure where this firm adds its value. It's not money, certainly not the buzz of a great reputation and it's not what I have seen in terms of management expertise--or lack thereof--from its partners. Greg Sands was of no value in or out of the board and seemed to spend much of his time undermining the founder of the company. Unclear why he just didn't get rid of the founder, instead of taking up special time and damaging morale with nasty comments behind the founder's back. Not cool, and not mature at all. If you fund them, back them or get rid of them and back the new guy. You can't have both. Sands showed great immaturity at every level of interaction, and one has to wonder if his partners know. If they do, shame for not doing anything about. If they don't, shame for not doing their own homework before they put some green kid on a board.

Posted by
Kendall
on 2007-06-28

PUBLIC:

Sutter Hill was one of the finalists in our Series B round. We ended up going with two other VCs that were closer to us, but I was extremely impressed with Sutter Hill. I especially liked Greg Sands and Trench Coxe. These guys are really smart and they understood the details about our business very quickly. We already had a lead VC, so I never negotiated with them, but they were both very honest and did not display any "VC egos". I will definitely strongly consider Sutter Hill for my next company.